THE REPAIR ATELIER
ART and DESIGN in REUSE

Repair writings

Markus Berger is an artist, designer, writer, and Professor of Interior Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). A registered architect (SBA) in the Netherlands, he is the founder and director of The Repair Atelier, a workshop and design platform that activates ideas of reuse and re-making across art, architecture, and design. His work challenges conventional aesthetics and explores material memory through acts of deconstruction, appropriation, and reconstruction.

Berger’s practice is driven by a critical inquiry into discarded and overlooked materials—fragments of daily life that carry both wear and meaning. In his hands, the broken and the surplus are not seen as refuse, but as potential. By methodically disassembling and remaking these remnants, he invites a reimagination of their identities: not to restore a lost wholeness, but to celebrate the traces of use, damage, and transformation they embody. His process foregrounds care, fragility, and the aesthetics of incompletion—embracing repair as both concept and method. 

Repair Essays:

Book:

News:

Interview:

Repair Lectures:

  • 2025, Repair Talks, Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia

  • 2025, Dialogue of Repair, AMPS, Prague, 2025

  • 2024, RISD TEDx, The REPAIRER: A Radical Transformation in Design Education

  • 2024, Political Concepts Symposium, Brown University, “Cycle” in This World

  • 2024, Interior Provocations Symposium, Unmaking, PRATT Institute

  • 2023, Scientific Committee, International colloquium on adaptive reuse “As Found”

  • 2023, Keynote speaker, International colloquium on adaptive reuse “As Found”

  • 2023, “Museum of Repair” Collaboration with VASL Arts Initiative

  • 2023, Lecture, Repair and Alternative Design Futures, Forethought India

  • 2023, Lecture, DE-Construct- RE-Construct, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Pakistan

  • 2022, Lecture, Repair in Human Centered Design, Global Masters Forum, China

  • 2021, Lecture, Repair, Sustainable Design Futures, Sreda Obuchenia University, Moscow, Russia

  • 2020, Lecture, Repair and Design Futures, Neue Universität, St Pölten, Austria

  • 2020, Lecture, Unmaking, Berlin International University of Applied Sciences

  • 2020, Lecture, Urban Interiority,  Sociology Department, Amherst College                

  • 2020, Lecture, Repair, Environmental Sciences Department, Brown University.

  • 2020, Lecture and workshop, Repair Thinking, Max-sine, Chengdu & Shanghai, China

 

Exhibitions:

  • Beyond the Blueprint: Architects as Artists, Koskores Gallery, Braintree, MA, 2025

  • on an unfounding, Group exhibition, Ignition Space Fall River, MA, 2025

  • Embodies Dialogues, Group exhibition, The Repair Atelier, Providence, RI, 2025

  • Museum of repair, Residency, 2023, VASL Arts Initiative and IVS, Karachi, Pakistan, 2023

  • Translations, Group exhibition, The Repair Atelier, Providence, RI, 2022

  • By Other Means, Group exhibition with J Katz, G Feld, K Lesky, Chesan Gallery, Providence, 2019

  • Uncover: Altered Books, Group exhibition, Periphery Gallery/ Paper Nautilus, Providence, 2019

  • Concrete Dreams, Solo Exhibition, AS220, Providence, 2018

  • RISD faculty biennial, RISD Museum, 2018

  • Re-making, Solo Art Exhibition, The Periphery Gallery, Pawtucket, 2016

  • OPPOSITES, Juried Art Exhibition, The Vets, Providence, 2016

  • RISD faculty biennial, Journal-Table -Journal in collaboration with Liliane Wong, RISD Museum, 2012

  • Mumuth with unstudio: Biennale di Venezia, Austrian pavilion, 2000

  • Solo exhibition of sculptures and paintings at Majmua gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, 1999

  • Cityscapes, Landmark exhibition on “Karachi Pop” posters and sculptures in group exhibition at Frere Hall, Karachi, Pakistan, 1999

  • Rivers, with Huma Mulji, Asma Mundrawala, Vazira Zamindar, Karachi, Pakistan, 1999